This Arc Towards Justice, by Andrea Clearfield

This week's #artsongfix highlights Andrea Clearfield's setting of Angelique V. Nixon's poem, This Arc Towards Justice.

This Arc Towards Justice was commissioned in 2015 by Susquehanna University, where Dr. Nixon is Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing.  Nixon's poem reflects on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., proclaiming:

50 years later
we are still fumbling
in the shadow of your dream

Angelique V. Nixon is the author of Resisting Paradise (winner of the Caribbean Studies Association's 2016 Barbara T. Christian Award for Best in the Humanities) and Saltwater Healing–A Myth Memoir and Poems.

This performance features soprano Sarah van der Ploeg, alto saxophonist J. Michael Weiss-Holmes, and pianist Andrew Rosenblum as a part of FCE's American Woman concert at the Church of St. Paul and the Redeemer on November 9, 2019.

Author

Bridget Skaggs is the founding mezzo-soprano and Executive Director of Fourth Coast Ensemble.  She studied opera at Oklahoma City University's Wanda L. Bass School of Music, and moved to Chicago in 2012 to pursue a dual career in singing and yoga.  Bridget's passion for art song grows from her lifelong love of words, communication, and the human voice.